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Potatoes Australia December 2016/January 2017
new varieties to be introduced
into Australia.
“Our overseas clients and
Australian agents can apply to
import new varieties through
the Australian Department
of Agriculture and Water
Resources. This ensures only
high health, pathogen-free
tissue culture is introduced
into Australia. Quarantine tests
the tissue culture over several
months against an extensive list
of pathogens and only release
material which has tested
negative to these pathogens,”
Ms Lochert said.
“It can then be released to
an accredited tissue culture
laboratory to work with that
material further. Solan is one of
those, along with Toolangi Elite
and Agronico. Each of these
three accredited laboratories
accept new tissue culture that
has come into Australia and hold
or produce from it on behalf
of the international owner or
Australian agent.”
Mr Morley added that many
varieties are introduced on a
trial basis, and field testing
is conducted to assess its
marketability and commercial
potential.
“Australia is a signatory to the
Plant Breeder’s Rights (PBR)
Convention. We at Solan are
registered to do PBR work, so a
lot of that new material comes
in to us. We test them, we grow
them, we assess them and we
report back to the owner and/or
importer,” he said.
Mr McKay added that Agronico
also provides services in the
licencing of varieties.
“We do have a fairly secure
system in terms of getting seed
potatoes to our growers. We hold
the cultures, grow the mini-
tubers and then we grow those
on for multiple generations.
That enables us to hold onto
the varieties and make sure
they’re secure,” he said.
“We’ve had various field days
at Toolangi and a lot of growers
are surprised about the science
and the rigour that’s actually
involved in the process. It
sounds easy, but it’s not an
easy process to do.”
Agronico has been using a
hydroponic system since it
started its mini-tuber production
20 years ago. Stewart McKay is
involved with mini-tuber sales at
Agronico, and he explained the
differences in the process.
“We grow the mini-tubers in
stainless steel troughs, and we
don’t have any organic material
there other than the potato
plants,” Mr McKay said.
“We get pretty good
multiplication rates … we work
on about 15-25 mini-tubers per
plant depending on the variety.
That means that we can put in
less tissue culture plants and get
higher yield. We also have the
ability to bulk up really quickly.
“In the last 10-12 years,
we’ve gotten to the point where
we’re producing pretty good
material using the hydroponic
system. We can fast-track
varieties, which is something that
is seen as an advantage.”
To introduce varieties into the
system from within Australia,
desired plants are selected from
breeding programs and, through
the process of meristem culture,
are introduced to a tissue culture
system. This plant material is
subjected to rigorous testing
and only released once tests for
pathogens are negative. This
high health tissue culture stock
can then be made available for
production purposes within the
Australian industry.
On the other hand, a set of
strict criteria must be met for
Potato tissue multiplication. Image courtesy of Solan.
Many new potato varieties are introduced on
a trial basis. Image courtesy of Agronico.
Agronico has been using a hydroponic system since it started its
mini-tuber production 20 years ago. Image courtesy of Agronico.
Mini-tuber production